American Literature II 500
Ms. Blumenthal
Applying Literary Theory
“Often literary theories change our views of a work of literature by proposing new distinctions or
new categories for looking at the work. This is a bit like putting on a new set of glasses: suddenly
you see things more clearly.”
--Stephen Bonnycastle, In Search of Authority
Readers apply literary theory in order to move beyond the surface of what is written on the page;
they dig deeper by assuming a particular lens, or perspective. There are multiple literary theories, but
we are going to focus on just two for now: feminism and Marxism. Below you will find working
definitions of both.
Feminist Literary Theory: Feminism asks why women have played a subordinate role to men in
human societies. It is concerned with how women’s lives have changed throughout history, and it
asks what about women’s experience is different from men’s, either as a result of an essential
ontological* or psychological difference or as a result of historical imprinting and social
construction. Feminist literary criticism studies literature by women for how it addresses or
expresses the particularity of women’s lives and experience. It studies male-dominated literature in
order to understand how men have used culture to further their domination of women.
* the branch of metaphysics that studies the nature or existence or being.
Marxist Literary Theory: Karl Marx conceived of human life as organized around the production
of goods for human consumption and survival. He noticed that all societies are arranged in such a
way that a large group of workers does the labor of production while a small group of owners reaps
the benefits and accumulates wealth. All history, Marx contended, is characterized by such unequal
class struggle. Ideology, or “the ruling ideas of the ruling class”, is a way of legitimizing or justifying
social and economic arrangements that might otherwise appear unjust. Those who rule need to
convince everyone else that the arrangement of the world is reasonable, natural, and good. Marxist
literary criticism seeks to understand how ideology works in literature to either reinforce the ruling
class’s power or champion the oppressed class(es) in their struggles against the dominant class.
Marxism combines an understanding of the social roots of literature with a sense of its political
ramifications.
CLASSWORK ASSIGNMENT ON BACK
1. Read “Daystar” by Rita Dove. Practice a feminist analysis of the poem by writing 3-5
sentences about each of the following:
a. The protagonist as a character
b. The protagonist’s situation
c. The author’s intent in writing the piece
2. Read “You Can Have It” by Philip Levine. Practice a Marxist analysis of the poem by writing
3-5 sentences about each of the following:
a. The protagonist as a character
b. The protagonist’s situation
c. The author’s intent in writing the piece